Black Rose

Forty

Jumping out of her sleep at the light banging on the other side of the bedroom door, Melrose looked next to her to see Raine's side of the bed empty. It didn't seem as if he'd even been in here at all because his side was still neatly made up. The sky was now jet black and Mel wondered what time it was and how long she'd been asleep. Grabbing her phone from under the pillow, she powered it on to see it was three in the morning.

Where the hell is he? She thought to herself.

Removing the covers off of her, she went to use the bathroom before heading down the stairs. Manly voices filled her ears before she even made it to the middle of the staircase. They'd seemed to be in deep conversation and whatever the topic was, they didn't want anyone to hear it. Carefully, Mel, tip toed down the rest of the stairs quietly and hid behind the pillar separating the family room from the hallway. She made it just in time to hear what Raine had to say.

"I'm jammed in a hard place right now man. Since the truth came out, I've been isolating myself from them and it's been a rocky journey. My parents have been blowing my phone up, trying to get me to say at least two words to them. I just can't look at them same anymore."

"And you have a right to feel that way." Jamar told him. "Who keeps a secret like this for years from your own son? I don't see how it was easy for them to look you in your face and not feel an ounce of remorse. Especially Winter weak ass."

When you're a devil in disguise it isn't a hard of a task to accomplish.

"I don't know but I'm just gonna go with the flow of things until I figure out what my next move is going to be, if any when it comes to them." Raine sighed, dropping his head in his hand. Melrose could see from his body language that he was stressed out. It confused her because he's been acting like everything has been fine, now he's confiding in his friend about his problems. Her feelings were kind of hurt because he knew he could come to her about anything and she'd listen. Or would she really when it had anything to do with his parents?

"Maybe he can't talk to me about it." She said lowly.

"Hey!" Melrose jumped, hearing the voice behind her, clutching her chest as she held on to the pillar for support. Kelsi stood there amused at her successful scare on her friend. "Jeez, are you trying to put me in early labor?"

Mel walked in the direction of the kitchen, leaving the men to their guy talk with Kelsi on her tail. "No, I wasn't trying to scare you either, but that's what happen when you're eavesdropping on a private conversation."

"I wasn't eavesdropping." She denied, scouring the refrigerator for leftover chicken nuggets. "I was contemplating on if I wanted to join them or not and I just so happened to ponder on the thought longer than I expected."

Kelsi smirked, shaking her head. "My three-year-old daughter lie better than you. Anyways, what do you have planned for tomorrow. I heard the snow is supposed to let up and granted this is a nice ass house, but I do not want to be cramped in here for the weekend."

"Do you have something in mind? You know I don't." Melrose maneuvered around the kitchen prepping her late-night snack.

"No, I'm out of ideas. We do the same thing every year, so I guess staying in the house is the plan after all." She pouted.

"Raine has an entire game room downstairs that has every game imaginable, including two bowling lanes installed. A movie theater with movies that hasn't come out yet and my own spa and relax room he just had put in for me. There's no way possible you'll be bored this weekend." Melrose informed her confidently. Kelsi nor Ahmad had known about the game room or any of the in-house luxuries for that matter, so Mel knew exactly what she was doing. The look on Kelsi's face proved it.